OPTIONS FOR TRANSLATING CULTURALLY UNFAMILIAR CONCEPTS
key term “sacrifice” in the Bible. Would their use not lead to syncretism? In response to a similar issue, Goerling
315
outlines two approaches as unacceptable: 1.
an avoidance of all religious words as a rigid principle because of their associations with concepts which convey meanings that seem incompatible with
Christian meaning; 2.
an uncritical acceptance of traditional religious words as fully usable to express the Gospel.
The question to consider in each case is whether there is enough common ground in the use of a word for it to communicate the message of Bible relevantly
without causing a significant distortion? As noted above p.56, the two words can be used in the same sentence to
refer to the same action. However this does not mean that they are necessarily synonyms in every context. Indeed it seems that
sÃraga can be used in a much wider range of contexts than sun.
When the word sun is mentioned, it immediately brings to the mind of the Supyire listener the whole scenario of animistic worship: fetishes, ancestors and
spirits. It does not collocate with Kile the high God. The question arises whether this is a collocational clash only for Christians who may react strongly against using any
word associated with animism in the translation of the Bible. However, all research to date points to it being a collocational clash for Supyire across all sections of the
community. So sun should not be used in translation in connection with sacrifices to God, but it would appear to be very suitable for occasions in the Bible when mention
is made of sacrifices to local, pagan deities.
S
Ã
raga
, unlike sun, has a very wide range of meaning. Although the Supyire themselves do not sacrifice to God, they have sufficient contact with Islam to be
aware that others do. To collocate sÃraga with Kile would not be shocking to
Supyire ears in the way that collocating sun and Kile would be. The wide semantic range of a word can constitute another problem for the
translator, that is to limit the reference to the type of sacrifice found in the Bible. This problem in the case of
sÃraga will often be immediately resolved by the participants mentioned in the immediate context, for example in the introduction to
315
Goerling, Criteria for the Translation of Key Terms in Jula Bible Translations, p.29.